diary

[arabaliozian]

Re: diary

SEMIRAMIS SPEAKS
***********************************
Once upon a time I worked with a floozy
who was fond of quoting lines with double meanings.
Some samples follow:
*
“What goes up must come down.”
*
“It only hurts for a little while.”
*
“A gentleman is one who places half his weight
on his elbows.”
*
“If you tell me how you got in,
I will tell you how to get out.”
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: diary

SEMIRAMIS
************************************************** **
There was a time when I wrote nothing but fiction.
That's when I worked in factories, department stores,
and insurance companies and came into contact
with a rich variety of characters.
It was at the head office of a large insurance company
that I met and worked with a foul-mouthed young divorcee
who was fond of delivering lines like
“Let me sit in your lap and we'll talk about the first thing that comes up.”
*
She inspired me to write a novella titled SEMIRAMIS
which was accepted for publication in an American periodical
but never saw the light of day
because the periodical went out of business.
*
When I sent it to a literary agent in New York,
I received a letter that said in effect:
“The story you have submitted is better suited
for university periodicals with which we don't deal.”
*
Later when I submitted it to ARARAT,
a literary quarterly published in New York,
the editor rejected it with a single line that stated
“We don't publish pornography.”
*
All this happened decades ago
and I lost track of my real-life Semiramis.
As for the editor, he died five years ago,
may the Good lord have mercy on his soul.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: diary

ON IDENTITY
*******************************
Just because I was born in Greece,
that doesn’t make me a Greek.
Just because I was educated in Italy…
Just because I live in Canada…
Who the hell am I?
My tentative answer:
an Armenian whose ambition in life
is to be born again as a human being.

[arabaliozian]

Re: diary

There are many things in life about which no one
tells you anything. Case in point: no one ever
bothered to tell me the secret of living a
comfortable life is to be a flatterer, not a
critic, and that there is more money in kissing
ass than in kicking it.

[arabaliozian]

Re: diary

When a reader tells me he hates what I write, I make an effort to be more hateful. I don't write to entertain, amuse, and flatter.

[arabaliozian]

Re: diary

https://www.facebook.com/#!/onthisday/?source=notification&notif_t=onthisday&notif_id=1470679387630452

[arabaliozian]

Re: diary

Monday, August 29, 2016
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NOTES / COMMENTS
**************************
Sooner or later all empires bite the dust;
and we are the dust.
*
An Armenians’ greatest problem
is another Armenian.
*
We are a nation of narcissists
who can’t stand one another.
*
You can’t save a nation
that has been dying the death of a thousand
self-administered cuts.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: diary

Very early this morning I opened my eyes with the words: "Many have tried before me and failed. When they were not silenced, they gave up in despair. Why go on?"
And here I am again, "unwashed, unshaved, unshat" (Auden), "buggering on" (Churchill).

[arabaliozian]

Re: diary

I love this sentence by Saint-Simon: "My self-esteem has always increased in direct proportion to the damage I was doing to my reputation."
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: diary

There are so many books on how to succeed that I can see a time when being a failure will be more interesting, unusual, and fashionable.